How can I use Skype on my Sony PSP?

Yeah, I've written quite a bit about the Sony Playstation Portable device (which you can find by clicking on: PSP help), including how to listen to Internet radio on the PSP and, of course, how to access the Internet on your Sony PSP too.

The Skype service is a bit different because you need special hardware to access it, namely a headphone + microphone combination. It's not too expensive ($26.99 at Amazon.com) but you can't do much without it.

However, I don't have one so I'll show you all the steps required to get hooked up with Skype other than, well, actually using it. Okay? :-)

As usual, your first step is to ensure that you have your PSP connected to the Internet.

Once you've done that, press the "Home" button to get to the main menu system, then use the right arrow to move all the way to the Internet related options, then the up/down arrows to find the "Skype" setting. Choose it by pressing "X" and you'll see:

I already have an account so I can choose "Sign In". if you don't, I highly highly recommend you set up an account on a real computer, not the PSP, since it'll go so much faster in terms of data entry. You can set up a new Skype account on the site easily enough.

Choose "Sign In" once you're ready by highlighting the "Sign In" option and pressing the "X" button. Now you'll see:

To enter your username, highlight the proper field and press "X". You'll be taken to the data input screen:

You can see I have laboriously entered my account name information already. When I'm done, I simply use the arrow keys to move to the "Enter" button and then press "X" to select it.

I'm back at the previous screen, but this time it shows my account name and lets me move to the password field. I select that with "X" and enter my account password in an identical process, select "Enter" again, and now I'm here:

Highlight "Sign in" here and press the "X" button again:

If you've entered valid credentials, you'll see this:

Uh oh. No, hopefully, unlike me, you actually have the necessary hardware to use Skype so you don't actually see that error message. Fortunately you can go past this just to see how things work, and that's what I'll do by pressing, you guessed it, "X" again:

Sweet! I'm logged in to my Skype account and it shows me buttons that let me view my profile, my contacts, history, the dial pad for dialing phone numbers, and so on.

I choose my Contacts list by highlighting it and pressing "X" and now I can see everyone that I'm connected with on Skype:

If I wanted to actually talk with Charlene, I'd press the "up triangle" button (immediately above the "X" button) to see my options:

I think you can figure things out from this point, yes? :-)

I hope that'll get you started working with Skype on your Sony PSP device. Very nice service, and it's a slick additional capability for what is one of the very best portable gaming units on the market right now. Looking for more help? I've got ya covered too: More PSP help.